Pop-Up Animal Card

Here's the other card I made for a three year old boy's birthday (they are twins). It has a pop-up cow and a farmyard theme on the front.

I made it from the same magazine and paper set as the pull-along tractor card and this was a bit quicker to make but probably more difficult. I've never really sucessfully made a pop-up card before and it wasn't entirely clear from the instructions which tab to stick where, so it took me a couple of attempts before I could get the cow to pop up!

I started off using a template to cut a particular shape out of a piece of green card.

I also covered the inside of a white square card blank with printed green paper that I thought looked a bit like grass and leaves, and cut out the cow picture that was provided.

I added a couple of birthday banners across the card, and stuck the cow onto the cardboard shape I had already cut out. After a couple of false starts I managed to stick it correctly so the cow folds down when the card is closed, and pops up when the card is opened.

I covered the front of the card in the same backing paper and added the other animal pictures that were provided in the pack. I thought it was still lacking something though so I found some die-cut balloon shapes and made them look as if they were attached to the pig and he was floating in the sky. I also added a silver 'happy birthday' outline sticker to the balloons.

Here's the cow popping up when you open the card - I'm really pleased I've got the hang of pop-ups now!

Farmyard Fun Pull-Tab Card

I made this birthday card for a little boy who was turning three. It came from a card making magazine full of ideas for children's cards; the magazine also came with a set of printed papers and pictures to cut out to make each of the card projects. I'm glad I had full instructions as this was a bit tricky (though now I know how to do it I could make something similar again), and it did take me a lot longer to make than most of my other cards. As you'll see below, there is a chicken hiding behind the window in the hay loft, and you can pull the tractor to open the barn doors and show the horse who is inside.

Here's the magazine I used

The first step was to cut out the barn doors and horse picture then cut them both in half down the middle. I then had to mount each piece on a piece of card cut out according to a template; it has a large tab on the left, a smaller one on top, and a square hole in the middle. The piece of card underneath has tabs that can be folded.

Place the two pieces together and use the tabs on the bottom piece to hold the top piece in place.

Next I cut out the large backing picture

And also the shed. There was a small picture of a chicken which I stuck behind the window gap and stuck a shutter - you can only see the underneath of it here - over the top, so it can be opened and closed.

Next I glued the barn onto the backing paper, having put the horse and barn door cardboard piece in the middle. There's just enough room at the sides that you can pull the blue tab on the left, and open and close the barn doors.

Finally I glued the tractor picture onto the end of the blue tab. Here the barn doors are closed and the window shutter is also closed.....

... then pull the tractor and the horse appears!